Germany is a central European country that is notable for being home to one of the continent's biggest economies. Standard German is the country's official language, although Northern Low Saxon is a popular regional dialect that is spoken in sections of northern Germany. Although the vast majority of the nation speaks Germany, some popular minority tongues in the nation include Danish, Turkish, Romani, Polish, Italian and Dutch.
Austria is a relatively small European federal republic that is landlocked and surrounded by the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy and Switzerland. German is the country's official language, although the country also has a handful of minority tongues, including Alemannic and Austro-Bavarian. However, both of the dialects can be easily understood by fluent German speakers.
Luxembourg is a tiny western European country that uses German as one of its official languages. Luxembourg is situated between Germany, France and Belgium. Apart from German, both French and Luxembourgish are recognized as official administrative tongues of Luxembourg. Luxembourgish is a Moselle Franconian language that is based on the speech of Germany's western central portion. The nation's common minority languages include Arabic, Turkish, Italian and Polish.
Switzerland is a western European country that consists of four official languages, German, Romansh, French and Italian. The four languages are generally all used in different sections of Switzerland. German is spoken by the majority of the Swiss people. Some of the Swiss cities that are German speaking are Zurich, Basel, Bern, Winterthur, Lucerne, Zug and St. Gallen. Bilingual German and French cities include Freiburg and Biel.
